1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to nano/micro bubbles, in particular to nano/micro bubbles for drug delivery.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Unlike small molecule drugs that are manufactured by synthesis, biologics (i.e. macromolecular drugs such as protein drugs, polysaccharide drugs) are synthesized in vivo by bacterial or mammalian cells as a platform. Although the threshold for preparation is relatively high, many advantages of biologics are provided, such as higher compatibility with human body, higher targeting capability and lower toxicity. Therefore, biologics have gradually emerged since the past decade and become popular drugs and occupied a great market demand in the world.
However, hydrophilic macromolecule drugs such as proteins, peptides, polysaccharides and nucleic acids, due to their structural properties and instability in the gastric acid, often must be prepared as injection dosage. To improve the inconvenience brought by invasive treatment, the development of a suitable pharmaceutical carrier for the preparation of oral dosage forms has been the current trend in recent years.
Common drug carriers for oral dosage form contain nano/micro particulate carriers composed of liposome, chitosan and γ-polyglutamic acid (γ-PGA). For example, the latter chitosan and γ-PGA carrier system has good tolerance to gastric acid and can be dissolved in the small intestine to release the active ingredient encapsulated therein. But its manufacturing process is very complicated, i.e. a precursor drug must be mixed and dried with special manufacturing process, and then coated in gelatin capsules. This will cause difficulties for practical mass production. Furthermore, capsule dissolution in the small intestine is often incomplete and difficult to be controlled resulted in likely affected efficacy. Therefore, there is a need to provide better dosage forms for patients with needs in long-term application of those drugs.
In summary, it is a current goal in related industries to develop suitable oral dosage forms for macromolecule drugs.